This Afternoon
by broken-hearted wings
Summary: Just the gang having fun. With water guns. On a hot afternoon.


**~!~ Okay, this is my first attempt at a Maximum Ride fic! I hope you guys like it. It was written in a bit of a hurry, but since my Internet's been going haywire, I've had nothing to do on it except play Spider Solitaire and write fanfics, so here's the first of those. Inspired by Nickelback's "This Afternoon". Written for the 100 theme challenge given to me by my friend. #4: Water. ~!~**

"Drink up, guys!" I waved my Coke can at the flock, who were all seated around me at various points. Iggy was reclining on the couch, taking up the entire thing with his long body, while Gazzy perched on the arm, at the end. Fang leaned against the wall in the doorway, wings still damp from the run he'd just made to the local joint, where he'd picked up some sodas and snacks for us. Angel was sitting in the single chair, legs dangling and Nudge was at the desk, attacking the bag of Cheetos she'd snatched from Fang as he'd walked in.

When I spoke, they all looked up expectantly. I paused and then lifted my drink.

"Drink to.. good times, unhealthy snacks, and abandoned houses!" Everyone grinned and chorused with me. Iggy took a piece from the pizza and held it out to Gazzy, doing that weird I-can't-see-but-I-can-still-wow-you-with-my-sensory-skills thing and by the time the box got around to me, there was only one piece and it was the small one. I made a face and got a bunch of laughs.

But, for once, I didn't protest. This was nice. Everyone was laughing, eating, and having a good time. Nudge had gotten her hands on a deck of cards and was trying to entice Angel into a game, while Iggy bargained some sort of bag of explosives that I probably didn't want to know about with The Gasman. For once, everyone was happy and I wasn't about to ruin things.

It was moments like these that made me glad we were a family and I didn't have an applepie life like those people you see on TV. Sure, applepie families don't have robot-boys chasing them constantly and always have food on hand, but we get along. The pluses being that we have wings and a talking dog, who was aiding Angel in her game of Speed with Nudge.

I looked across the room and saw Fang, who was watching the card game with an amused look in his eye. As if he could feel my eyes on him, he turned and looked back at me and we shared our usual speaking-without-speaking sort of thing. He knew I was happy and I could tell that through the uncharacteristically noticeable smile of his, the one that made my insides squirm with delight.

"I won!" Angel threw her hands up in the air while Nudge looked dejected.

"What, you seriously thought you might win against a mind-reader?" Total asked, clinging to Angel's shoulder with little black paws as she bounced in excitement. I went over to pat Nudge on the shoulder.

"Hey, you were doing good there for awhile." I gave her a reassuring grin and she perked up quickly. See what a good mama I am?

While I was bending over Nudge, urging to play against someone like Iggy instead, because she might actually win that way, I felt a cold wet squirt hit my back and butt. I whirled around, shock flitting across my face before I saw Gazzy straddling the couch's arm and wielding a giant water gun. The openly devilish delight on his face made me realize that this had been a planned thing as I threw myself at him, only to get splatted again by Iggy.

"Seriously?" I yelled, diving behind the couch instead and Fang grabbed me, halting my descent and taking the breath out of me.

"Max, duck!" Angel came to my rescue, having somehow wrestled a water gun from one of the boys and getting a hit in on Fang, square in the face, which made me laugh. He didn't let go of me, like normal people would, and blinked the water away while I struggled.

"Guys! Some more help would be good!" I called, laughing hard as I grabbed his arms and tugged, trying to release myself and ignore the warmth that seemed to explode between the two of us and everywhere we touched. Nudge snatched up the Orange Soda that Gazzy had been drinking and promptly dumped it on his head, making him squeal like a girl in protest, something that mad everyone laugh.

Angel waged all-out war on Iggy who yelped as he got soaked and doved behind the couch.

"Coward! Come out and fight them like a man!" I mocked. He gave me a perfectly sarcastic look from unseeing eyes.

"This coming from the damsel in distress?" I didn't bother to ask how he knew this. Instead-

"Damsel in distress? Never. That's marring my record." So I took action. I knelt suddenly, tucking over myself and hauling Fang right over my body, but I did it carefully so that when he landed on his back, he wouldn't break anything. A loud whuff escaped from him and Angel cheered from where she stood on the other side of the couch. I jumped over it and high-fived her, grinning widely.

The Gasman scrambled to join the other boys on their side of the couch, while Nudge armed up with things to throw and Angel cocked her gun.

"I'll take Fang." I told the two of them, taking control like the awesome leader that I am. "Nudge, you get Iggy and Angel can have Gazzy." They nodded, Nudge taking aim with her milk carton.

"Go!" I yelled and the room exploded with feathers and laughter. I hurdled over the couch again, taking a moment to be quite pleased with my efforts, before I grabbed his water gun and yanked it upwards, so that the squirt of water didn't hit me and wet the ceiling instead.

Fang grabbed ahold of my shoulders and swung me around, before neatly putting my legs out from under me and landing me on my back, much like I'd done to him, except with less finesse, of course.

He knelt on me, knee pressing lightly on my stomach and hands restraining me, while I made faces at him, determined to not pay attention to how close he was to me and what that was doing to my nerves, because they were acting insane, all over the place and making my skin go electric every time he touched me.

But, of course, Fang looked completely unaware of this and simply smirked down at me.

"Don't give me that." I ordered, squirming uselessly.

"This's the second time I've managed to incapacitate you." He pointed out. Ugh. Why'd he have to be right?

"I don't consider this incapacitated." I informed him haughtily. "Only when I'm unconscious am I truly out of commission."

Fang's eyebrow rose.

"Well, then. I'll just have to put you out of commission." My stomach squeezed in delight while my mouth went dry.

"That's highly doubted." I informed, glad I didn't sound out-of-breath, because that would make the situation even more embarrassing. Determined not to look like a complete imbecile, a word I got from Iggy, I tried to figure out a way to escape.

Looking around, I realized that any view of us was blocked by the couch that we were directly behind. The others were busy shooting each other with water guns, which worked well with the plan I was so cleverly concocting in my head.

I looked back up at him, seeing that he was watching me closely, obviously waiting for a surprise move. Instead, I bit back a grin and put a hand on his neck, lifting my head like I was about to kiss him, eyes intent on his. The shock in his face was so obvious that I nearly laughed. He jerked backwards, one hand moving to grab my arm, providing the perfect chance to get out from under him.

Jumping backwards, laughing, because I had come up with the perfect plan to save myself, I was taken aback by the look in his eyes as he stood up too, facing me. He looked way intense. I swallowed, trying to ignore the fact that my eyes kept moving to his ruffled black hair and then to his beautiful wings that arced gently behind his back, and then to his mouth, which was so tempting that I was almost embarrassed.

I took a step back, into the hallway, and he followed, coming up to back me into the wall, leaning one arm against the wall and looking down into my eyes. I sucked in a breath.

"Fang, don't get so excited, I was just trying to keep my fighting record from being marred-" And he leaned in, brushing his soft, sweet mouth against mine. I completely lost my train of thought. I had to clench my hands into fists at my sides, to keep from grabbing some part of him and holding on, because I had the unique sense of flying. Flying, and not using my wings. It took effort to keep from giving into this embrace, because at that moment, I forgot myself and I really wanted it.

But Fang drew back and I thanked my lucky stars for that. I had been so close to that edge.

"As far as I'm concerned, that's Fang: 1, Max: 0." He informed me and before I could protest, he was moving away, smirking in my direction before rejoining the pandemonium that came from the main room, leaving me in my spot against the wall.

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair before following and ducking a stream of water, and then grabbing Nudge before she slipped on a fallen drink.

Yeah. Loud, screaming, shrieking kids. Wrestling teenagers. Crazy hormones times ten. Weird kisses in the hallway. And water guns. Still an ordinary day for a bird-kid.


End file.
